China Loans US$28.9 Billion to Female Entrepreneurs

Song Xiuyan, vice president and first member of the Secretariat of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), delivers a key-note speech at the 2014 APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy, under the 2014 APEC Women and the Economy Forum held in Beijing on May 22. [Women of China/ Fan Wenjun]

The total loans-without-interest released for women's small and medium-size entrepreneurial projects have accumulated to 180 billion yuan (U.S. $28.9 billion) in China, with government-financed loans reaching 11.3 billion yuan (U.S. $1.8 billion) since 2009.

This data was released by Song Xiuyan, vice president and first member of the Secretariat of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), when she delivered a key-note speech at the 2014 APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy, under the 2014 APEC Women and the Economy Forum held in Beijing on May 22.

Song said, in order to solve the fund shortage faced by millions of women in China in their efforts to alleviate poverty or to start their own business, the Chinese government has issued small-amount secured loans based on the financial discount policy since 2009. This has effectively supported millions of women in their employment and entrepreneurship.

Song noted that China has the largest population of women in the world. After the three decades long opening-up and reform policy, China has entered a new phase with the need to change its development mode. During this process, women's role in economic development has become more and more important. Women's development is seen as an important part of the whole nation's economic and social development plan.

Song said that the Chinese government has supported women in order to make good use of economic factors, including fund and land management, through legislation and policy support. The government has strengthened training and guidance work on enhancing women's vocational skills, and promoted women's economic empowerment through developing professional organizations and the introduction of specialized projects.

However, Song also noted: "Women in China are still facing many problems and challenges in sharing the economic resources and economic income distribution. For example, women are mainly in a lower level of employment in the labor market. And there is still gender discrimination and an income gap existing between men and women in the labor market. So we still need to work harder to solve these issues in the future."

The APEC Women and the Economy Forum is one of the ministerial-level meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). More than 300 delegations from the 20 member economies of APEC, the APEC Secretariat, and the APEC Business Advisory Council attended this year's forum, which was held in Beijing from May 21-23, 2014. The theme of this year's forum is to 'Unite women's strength and boost the Asia-Pacific Economy'.

Source: Xinhua/ Translated end edited by Women of China

The 10 Scary Thoughts Every Startup Founder Secretly Has At Least Once

Even the most confident entrepreneurs doubt themselves sometimes.

One of our earliest team members, who left to start his own company, sent us an email recently. I'll paraphrase here, but the gist of it was that despite his being one of the first people to join the team at Ampush, nothing could have prepared him for starting his own company from the ground up.

I'm not surprised. Startup founders are often portrayed as "living the dream": Young, bright, usually C-level executives of their companies, working on "cool stuff;" running "The Show." It must seem like an incredibly attractive career option. You don't have to work up the corporate ladder at BigCo, or even be employed by the startup itself.

But reality looks a little different. While there are great articles that give advice for working at a startup and that outline the startup social contract, very few give an open and honest view of what it's actually like to be a founder/startup executive. (Though Quora offers some solid opinions.)

I thought I'd share my own view. Below is a list of 10 things a startup founder often thinks, but will rarely admit out loud:

1. "I don't know the answer."

The entrepreneurial process is by definition one of making it up as we go. It's important for startup founders and even employees to accept that we don't (and won't) know the answer often. Instead, we have to focus on how to get answers, either by experimenting on our own or by cultivating a strong network — and then relying on this network for advice.

2. "Our company is going under."

Whether or not it's true, this is a thought that probably flashes through every founder's head. Because founders know their business so intimately, they can point blindfolded to the three potential things in the market that would run their business into the ground. Founders who succeed are the ones with the personality and drive to do whatever it takes to keep their company alive.

3. "I'm doing more work than you know."

Whatever work you see a founder doing, they're actually doing five times as much behind the scenes. Until a company is several hundred people strong, all the other jobs that have to get done go to the founders. This includes but is not limited to: a potential acquisition; a threatened lawsuit; settling a dispute between two VPs; and any other task we can't delegate, but have to complete.

4. "I sometimes wish I had a boss."

Decision fatigue is real and when we are the ultimate authorities, most decisions trickle up to us. Founders can't look up one level and get the answer. Our decision is there for every client, employee, and partner to analyze, criticize and doubt.

5. "I do take it personally."

We try not to, but we do. Whether you're an employee who chose to work at our startup, a partner or a client — if you're unhappy, it makes us unhappy. We started our company because we believed there was a better way. If someone at any level of the company is unhappy, we take it personally and want to do everything we can to fix it. Really.

6. "I hate office politics."

Founders generally prefer to concentrate on designing and building products or developing a pitch for a big client. What we don't enjoy is breaking up arguments, dealing with he says/she says scenarios or negotiating someone's job title. We just want to lead and continue to make the company successful.

7. "I miss the early days."

The workplace dynamic changes very fast when a company goes from five to 15 to 50. Admittedly, we find ourselves nostalgic for the days of familial camaraderie, knowing everyone's story, and being able to move quickly. At the same time, we as founders are ambitious and want the company to grow — but we try our best to maintain that intimate feeling as we scale.

8. "I'm struggling with work-life balance. A lot."

Yes, we have this issue in spades. While we do live for our company, we also know it can kill us. We don't go to the gym enough, we eat horribly, and we don't spend enough time with loved ones. Entrepreneurship can be a very selfish thing. We need to learn to manage our time better and to unplug to make entrepreneurship more sustainable.

9. "I sometimes question the sacrifice I made."

This one is a big taboo. How can we ask other people to work crazy hours to build this company when we ourselves ask the question, "Is it worth it?" But founders are humans too. When we are working 100-hour weeks, investing all our money, and sometimes hitting walls, we will question what we are doing in the first place.

10. "I'm not living the dream, I'm living in a dream."

As our company gets traction and starts to scale, sometimes it doesn't feel quite "real." It's exciting but also surreal! This explains why we may have unrealistic expectations or why we don't always appreciate the gravity of our words or decisions for the rest of the company. Oftentimes what we're working on does not feel like a reality — it still feels like a dream.

From Business Insider

Cynthia M. Allen: Where have all the entrepreneurs gone?

Last month, in an event that went largely unnoticed, President Obama appointed 11 new ambassadors for global entrepreneurship.

The eager purveyors of the American way are responsible for inspiring and helping fledgling business owners in the U.S. and abroad to become part of the "next generation of entrepreneurs."

As someone who believes deeply in the power of a healthy and dynamic private sector to build strong economies, lift people from poverty and create broad prosperity, I'm delighted that the president is looking to export what is surely one of our nation's greatest assets: our entrepreneurial spirit.

But as we work to inspire and encourage innovators on other continents, we cannot ignore that business dynamism - the process through which businesses begin and fail, create, destroy and transfer jobs - has taken a nose dive at home.

And the economic implications are huge.

It may come as a shock, but entrepreneurism has actually been in danger for decades, although it has fallen off a cliff in recent years.

Census data from 1978 to 2011 (the latest year available) show that while the number of business deaths has held relatively steady for the last 30 years, the number of businesses being created is trending downward.

In 2006, that downward trend went from gradual to precipitous, a sharp decline that a recent analysis by the Brookings Institution called "disturbing."

Americans established fully 27 percent fewer businesses in 2011 than they did five years prior.

And around 2008, the number of businesses exiting the market actually exceeded the number of firms opening their doors.

Yikes.

It's easy in a state like Texas, where the economy is humming along, to think the trend is isolated; it's not. Texas' new-business entry rate from 2009-2011 was almost 36 percent lower than it was from 1978-1980, although the exit rate was largely unchanged. And multiple studies confirm that the decline is universal, affecting every sector of the economy.

As the Brookings study explains, an economy in constant churn "forces labor and capital to be put to better uses," thereby catalyzing innovation and spurring new enterprises. And "when business dynamism is spiraling," says small-business writer Jean Card, "when small firms" - the historic driver of new employment - "are not creating jobs, economic recovery cannot be complete."

This might help explain the inertia that is holding our current recovery captive, and it also hints at other concerns, raised by columnist James Pethokoukis: "Without competition from new companies, old ones will pursue only the sort of 'efficiency innovation' that makes production cheaper. ..." That means they will do things like automate and cut employment, and the consequent lack of job competition could cause wages to stagnate, even decline.

Similarly, decreased dynamism allows "established players" to "win through lobbying what they can't achieve in the marketplace," also known as crony capitalism, which further solidifies the downward cycle of indifference to innovation and economic decline.

Yes, all of this is very troubling and solutions will not come easily, but finding and implementing them before the trend lines dip further is imperative.

Politicians will argue about the causes; those on the right will point to a suffocating regulatory environment that creates barriers to entry. Those on the left will finger increasing economic inequality. Increasing student loan debt, declining productivity and deeply embedded structural barriers will also get some well-deserved blame.

There is little doubt that all of these causes play their role in our floundering business dynamism, and each must be addressed.

It will take a comprehensive and bipartisan approach to turn the tide, one that seeks to simplify the tax code, takes a less punitive approach to small-business regulation and yes, one that pursues immigration reform that increases visas for immigrant entrepreneurs and encourages them to remain in the United States - at least that's a start.

So while I'm all for promoting entrepreneurial diplomacy abroad, it's time for a little economic nation-building at home.

From BND.Com

Local entrepreneurs mark 20 years in the Hawkeye business

Brook Peterson, left, and David Gallagher own Bravo Sports Marketing,
 which is marking its 20th anniversary this spring.

          

Iowa is filled with passionate Hawkeye supporters, but David Gallagher and Brook Peterson are among the few who have made a career out of their fandom.

For the past 20 years, the two University of Iowa business school graduates, through their company Bravo Sports Marketing, have been hosting corporate tailgates, arranging hotel accommodations and selling memorabilia to fervent Hawkeye fans like themselves.

"We mixed two passions together, loving sports and loving the Hawkeyes, and bringing it together to make a business of it," said Gallagher, who with Peterson is marking their business's 20th anniversary this month.

The two met in graduate school pursuing their MBAs at UI, and they worked together as marketing interns for the Athletics Department.

In 1994, the Hawkeyes were coming off a pair of ho-hum football seasons and season ticket sales were dwindling, so UI athletics administrators discussed creating a new sales plan to draw large groups or corporate groups to games. Gallagher and Peterson seized the opportunity.

"Dave and I were just finishing school, and they didn't necessarily have the staff to do it, so we formed our company and put together a proposal to do it," Peterson said.

The two have been in the sports hospitality business ever since. Today their North Liberty-based company operates the Hawkeye Village, the corporate and large-group tailgating area that hosts hundreds and sometimes thousands of fans on football gamedays.

Bravo Sports has a contract through UI's multimedia partner, Hawkeye Sports Properties, to sell ticket and tailgate packages for the Hawkeye Village, which provides food and entertainment before home football games at the Duane Banks Baseball Complex near Kinnick Stadium.

"A lot of the people we attract don't have season tickets or regular tailgating plans set, so we create that environment for them," Peterson said of the corporate groups they work with. "A lot of times we also have an alumni association from the opposing team there, so it adds to the spirit of gameday for everybody."

And Gallagher and Peterson aren't just busy during home games. Their company also secures blocks of hotel rooms for Hawkeye fans for select road games, and they organize events in other cities in conjunction with Hawkeye games. For instance, they've arranged a Hawkeye Day at Wrigley Field and have hosted tailgate parties before bowl games.

The company also has branched out to merchandise sales over the past decade. In 2004, Gallagher and Peterson partnered with UI to salvage nearly 8,000 bricks from Kinnick Stadium that were left over from a renovation project to sell to fans.

They're also a licensee for Hawkeye merchandise and currently produce and sell everything from T-shirts to posters to bowl buttons, and they supply local retailers with Hawkeye items.

"They're great examples of two young guys who love the Hawks, who are entrepreneurial and who have been able to evolve as the business world evolved over the last couple of decades," said UI associate director of athletics for external relations Rick Klatt, who has worked with Gallagher and Peterson over the years. "They are able to identify some things that private entrepreneurs like themselves can do much more simply, more efficiently than the university could. They certainly help us tell the Hawkeye story."

The company's success is tied largely to the success of UI's sports teams, for better or worse, depending on the season. And right now, with the men's and women's basketball teams coming off NCAA tournament seasons, and the football team fresh off an Outback Bowl appearance, it's a good time to be in the Hawkeye business.

"The schedule and how well Iowa is doing is a big part of it," Peterson said. "We do a lot better in a bowl season than when they go 4-8 — that affects us significantly. And it's not just the ticket packages; people buy fewer T-shirts and collectables. It's funny how when things start rolling, like they are in basketball right now, people want to show their Hawkeye pride."

As for the future, Gallagher and Peterson have begun coordinating pregame parties for companies at sporting events beyond the University of Iowa, including at NFL and NHL games, and will continue to look for new opportunities, they say.

"But our first passion, love and responsibility is with the Hawkeyes," Gallagher said.

From Press Citizen

Failure has important lessons for entrepreneurs

Groupon launched as a social activism platform, designed to help people connect and take action in a common cause. After a year of effort and US$1-million, it was pretty much a disaster. So the founders re-tooled their offering into a pay-up-front discount offer service that was a wild success.

If at first you don’t succeed … relax. You’re not alone. Failing is often the only way to success.

Around 100,000 businesses are launched each year in Canada. Upward of 15% of them will fail within the first 12 months; only half will make it to their fifth birthday.

Bleak? Alarming? An entrepreneurial crisis? Of course not. It’s more like business as usual.

As a startup entrepreneur, it can be terribly hard to have to pack it in. Most live in crippling fear of their business not surviving.

“Every entrepreneur feels it. It’s like life and death, and it’s utterly pervasive,” says Jonathan Bixby, executive director of the Vancouver-based business incubator Growlab. “Trouble is, they’re usually the last one in the room to realize it’s time to give up.”

We see it at the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) as well, with the startups we help get off the ground. And while we never like to see a venture fail, we fully understand how daunting the realities of taking a brand new business from concept to customers can turn out to be.

When a startup fails, the single most important thing an entrepreneur can do is look for the  inevitably lessons revealed. Failure is not only inevitable for some companies, but it often results in better, more focused and more efficient re-tries down the road — 35% of Canadian entrepreneurs will try again at least once, while 60% have started between two and four other businesses.

Serial entrepreneurs learn to successfully live with the risk of failure, and they tend to become more savvy as a result, which significantly increases their chance of success with a subsequent venture.

That “try, try again” approach is critical to ensuring Canada’s business pool will generate enough winners to keep the economy growing. Business resilience — whether it’s making a course change that translates into turnaround, or taking a new plunge after an outright failure, is not only an essential quality for long-term success — but it’s being embraced across businesses of all sizes.

The “lean startup” methodology now being taught in leading business schools essentially calls for entrepreneurs to move fast, listen to your customers, refine your offering, and if it still doesn’t fly then cut your losses and get out quickly. Engaging your target customers early — even before you’ve worked out all the bugs, with the “minimum viable product,” as it’s known — can offer the best possible feedback and, if you’re nimble enough to adapt your strategy in response, it can make the difference between success and failure.

Groupon launched as a social activism platform called The Point, designed to help people connect and take action in a common cause. After a year of effort and US$1-million, it was pretty much a disaster. So the founders pivoted, and re-tooled their offering into the pay-up-front discount offer service Groupon ultimately became, using a pizza place in their building as the first test case. The response showed they had found the way to motivate users into action — a vastly different approach from the initial concept — and Groupon became the fastest company in history to book US$1-billion in revenue.

Whether they experience a near-miss or an outright turn-off-the-lights business failure, entrepreneurs who can apply the hard lessons and endure to fight another day are demonstrably better equipped for success down the road. How you play the game really does affect whether you win or lose in the long term.

Canada’s business culture needs to be more understanding when it comes to failure; to change the mindset and recognize that it is not the end, but part of the learning pathway toward genuine success.

If we want Canadian entrepreneurs to stay in the game, we have to change the perception. As bankers, when we see prior bankruptcy on a credit report, we need to resist the temptation to walk away from the deal and instead ask the entrepreneur what they learned from the failure. We need to view those scars as a sign of experience and determination against the odds.

When we teach our children to walk, we know they’re going to lose their balance and fall more than once. Business resilience – and especially the increased adaptability and willingness to pivot, re-evaluate and re-tool — must similarly be embraced and celebrated.

As the speed of movement from concept to customer continues to increase exponentially, Canadian businesses need to recognize that the road to penultimate success inevitably will be that much windier and feature more than a few potholes. But the determination to absorb the shocks and recalibrate your course — or even scratch what you are doing altogether and start over — is increasingly being recognized as part of the new normal in today’s startup environment.

From Financial Post

Entrepreneurs, Watch Your Back Side

The gut-wrenching decisions and night sweats every founder can appreciate are well presented in Ben Horowitz's book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things. He tells his dramatic personal story of leading startups Loudcloud and Opsware through tough times. He shows us the skills and expectations we have for company founders as leaders, doers and modern cultural heroes.

Horowitz’s story is the “front side” of entrepreneurship but there is a “back side” that is seldom discussed or written about. That makes its hazards all the more treacherous for entrepreneurs.

The back side I’m referring to is the founder’s life away from the company. It’s the challenging task of building a steady financial footing, solid family relationships and staying healthy on the shifting, unpredictable ground of entrepreneurship.

The support structures and metronomic predictability that undergird daily life for most people are generally unavailable to entrepreneurs. Taking your career “off the grid” as an entrepreneur risks pressures that can reduce a founder’s personal life to rubble.

Successful back side management, fittingly, takes desire, effort and flexibility. It also often requires help. As a husband, dad and founder of four companies, I don't see it as optional. I’ve watched many beautiful front-side facades of companies and careers crumble because the back side was poorly designed and constructed.

Here’s a shorthand framework for thinking about what makes up the entrepreneurial back side and how you can begin to wrap your arms around it:

1. Goals. Company founders are engrossed thinking who their company serves and the core values guiding it. Most entrepreneurs never approach their personal mission with the same sense of destiny. It’s not optional -- you must.

2. Wallet: Are you keeping a close eye on your personal finances? Entrepreneurs throw nickels around like manhole covers and can squeeze revenue from the tightest customers but they seldom apply the same discipline to their personal finances. It’s an enormous source of instability and stress for many company founders.

3. Collateral damage. Want to get depressed, company founders? Google “entrepreneur divorce rate.” The break-up of a marriage will crater a company faster than any competitive bombshell. The children of affluent families have their own challenges that can become a huge burden for any entrepreneur to bear. Unless you consider how your drive to succeed is affecting your family, you risk winning the battle and losing the war.

4. Health. By definition, your company wouldn’t exist without you. How hard are you working to ensure that it won’t have to? Watch out for your own physical well-being at least as much as every other indispensible company asset. Your board is not granting bonuses for having a heart attack. 

5. Mental health. Staying steady under stress when people look to you for leadership is unbelievably difficult. Watching a company crumble under its founder’s depression or addiction isn’t a pretty sight. You need to manage stress in a healthy way to stay sane under pressure.

6. Accountability. It’s all well and good to have plans and checklists but, as Field Marshal von Moltke observed, “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” Who keeps you true to your personal vision and well-being and doesn’t let you off easy when you fall short?

Entrepreneurs often lead remarkable lives. But those remarkable lives require significant attention, forethought and work. But what’s good in life that doesn’t? 

From Entrepreneur

Secrets Of Success: 5 Lessons From Chinese Entrepreneurs

There’s a reason why people of Chinese origin make up nearly a quarter of the world’s billionaires

According to the Hurun Rich List, people of Chinese origin account for 24% of the world’s billionaires.

Sure, China has the world’s second largest economy and its citizens constitute a fifth of the planet’s population.

But it is still ranked a lowly 121 on Index Mundi’s list of nations based on GDP (PPP) per capita. Indeed, it is sandwiched between Ecuador and the Caribbean territory of Montserrat, neither of which is an economic superpower.

So if China punches above its weight when it comes to producing entrepreneurs, what can it teach the rest of us about business?

1. Don’t rush decisions 

In the West, we make decisions in a hurry. Being ‘busy’ is a badge of honor, and we expect everything to be done yesterday. In China, entrepreneurs take their time over the things that matter. They take time to make decisions and they take time to trust people. They get criticized for dragging their feet, but they get their priorities straight.

2. Do seize opportunities 

Wonder why the Chinese already have a powerful presence in resource-rich Africa? They know a good opportunity when they see one, and they’re not afraid to seize it. Once they’ve set their mind to something, Chinese entrepreneurs are very good at doing. Hence they transform their businesses quickly. So what if your company produces electro-components today? It can still generate electricity tomorrow.

3. Know how to adapt 

Change does not scare Chinese entrepreneurs. They are continually learning and adapting their business models to fit different circumstances. Those who say the Chinese can’t innovate or only produce low-quality goods do so at their peril. They are becoming more innovative and producing better-quality goods all the time.

4. Look on the bright side

Most of us sound off about government policies that we dislike. But Chinese entrepreneurs don’t waste their energy whining about things they can’t change. They just get on with it. Billionaires in the making are natural optimists; they don’t let politicians spoil their day.

5. Be a decent person

Chinese entrepreneurs care about reputation and integrity. They believe that losing face is shameful so they have a strong sense of honor. Equally, they expect others to deliver on their promises. And they value their communities and their families greatly. They know that building a successful business is a team effort.

China is one of the world’s most exciting economies, and its business leaders continue to amaze and inspire other entrepreneurs around the world. That’s why EY is bringing the Strategic Growth Forum to Shanghai this week from 22-23 May 2014. We want to learn how China punches above its weight – and we know you do, too.

From Forbes